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Tomb of Itami
The Tomb of Itami is a mysterious, at present hidden location on Earth, the resting place of one of Void God's Avatars. The tomb was constructed in the earliest years of Humanity itself, after the birth of the Mythos, and surpasses the structural integrity of any known alloy or material, seemingly defying all forms of penetration and infiltration. Mysterious guardians protect the ancient sphere like tomb, though none have stepped within the very center of the complex, the location of Itami's Sarcophagus. It is believed to be hidden beneath the North American region of the world, and only its own guardians are aware of its location at this time. The Core of Truth Vulkas is the first to appear from the white void, landing in a sprawled heap, he sees a clawed white foot standing next to his head, and curiosity drives him to look up and see the same old white knight from before. You awake, and your spirit is a resilient one. The others will take more time to traverse the border of worlds... ...I am sorry, but in the presence of the Avatars my power is at a standstill with theirs... ...Your world is doomed, along with everyone you knew. The knight's voice is solemn. The birth of the Fourth Avatar is upon us. We will have to do everything in our power to stop it from being born, or all worlds will meet Echo's impending fate. Vulkas stands there quietly, thinking about every friend and every ally hes made throughout his life. "The last thing I should do is sulk. We are all in this situation together." His eyes give an opalescent gleam. "I will not let any more lives be taken." The ground begins to shake as the others begin to arrive. Look now to the heavens. Let the sight you will behold serve as a reminder of what you are fighting for. This moment, this hour, never forget the cost. For those of you from Echo, you are now its sole survivors. Michiko, Kiyona, Zetsubo, and Azula all look on in horror as a massive white star like light bursts into being in the skies of Earth. This is the cost of the hatred between man and myth, know that this has happened before, long long ago. When I was still naught but a simple man... the first Avatar was born. ...My son. Azula falls to her knees and begins to weep uncontrollably, Abeni can only watch, with furious clenched fists. Michiko and Kiyona hold each other, their spirits broken by the sight, having lost their families. This place.. ...brings back horrible days... ...of the first war. Vulkas remains still as he slowly creates his Shift of Planes, and begins to play. The music has no effect on anything however, just expressing his feelings as he pours his heart into his song. It never had to be a war. None of this ever had to be. ''A male's voice rings out through the stone halls of the place they had arrived at. ''It was your selfish desire to support your own race, even as they butchered my own. Even after all we did for them. This day... ...is the justice of all myths, of all those who man has persecuted. Today, we shall '''all '''be free. Vulkas slowly stops as the Shift of Planes dissapears. He finds himself weak, barely able to even stand. "Your justice is for naught." Do you intend to stop us? Naive. With her birth, our victory is assured. A new world, our perfect world. One without man's wretched sin. Vulkas breathes in and out, steadying himself. ''"My path will not be deterred. And I have set myself on a path that denies your glory. I tread with allies, and we will stand for each other." ''Then I, Kal'ull, First of the Avatars, await you within the depths. Welcome to my tomb. At the being's words, the stones reveal red runes throughout the tomb. Now that he looks around, he can see the place is beyond ornate in design, almost palace like. Beautiful sculptures and carvings adorn this place. Before he can truly look around, the light above suddenly disappears, but off in the far distance of the corridor, he can see a similar light. The ancient knight stares in that direction. It is a trap, that direction. You will wander for eternity if you go that way. Follow me and do not stray for a moment. That light... he presumes to taunt us with the prize of that soul. Be wary. The knight begins to approach the far wall of the catacomb. Vulkas looks to those around him. "As long as we do not falter, there is still chance to save face." He turned back around, walking after the knight. Akami's mind was still racing from what all had just happened. She had the sensation of confusion and uselessness. She came this far trying to help a friend. Well, an aquaintance. And now here she is...Somewhere where knights and disemobodied voices live. Akami couldn't sort out how she was feeling looking back where she came to Echo to where she is now...The was '''ALOOOOOT '''of things she could've thought of doing instead of going through all this. None of it was good. Especially most of them consist of Obi. All she did was follow behind Vulkas. She followed Kado in blind and she was going to finish the exact same way if it can get her home and out. Nezumi patches up everyone who was injured, while most of the residents of Echo in the group trail behind, especially Azula, whose eyes are destitute of any life to them. Akami: Hey guys. If you all aren't being terminally mind-fucked right now, me and this...Jedi lookin-ass guy are following this old-ass night who may or may not show us how to survive and shit. Sooooo, if you wanna survive and shit, we'll be following this knight. Thought I'd let you all know that. Azula's gaze silently and grimly meets Akami's, her pupils dragonic. "You still have a world to survive in." Her voice is hoarse. With practically no effort, she complete outpaces Akami and is walking next to Vulkas and The Ancient, a horrible grim cast to her eyes. The other survivors are still following, but their spirits are broken and their hearts shattered. The Slayer wielders seem to now be without weapons. "If we start bearing ill-will to each other, the first avatar will crush us instantly. But Akami, please. Let us....reflect." Vulkas is clearly trying his best to keep everyone up and not broken, but to little avail. Akami: Hey man, reflect all you want. I'm reflecting myself. The Ancient slowly leads them through various secret passages and tunnels, all the while they slowly descend, until finally reaching a large circular area in the structure, a vast chasm stretching out into a huge main hole in the ceiling, and stretching far down, where a solid sphere structure held by chains hangs at the center of the complex. A small opening reveals a blinding light deep inside the hanging sphere. Our destination. Akami: What is'' that suppose to be? ''The tomb of my son, of the first Avatar. Akami: Never seen a tomb so...extravagant before. The better to assure he never walked from the grave... ...because I loved him too much to allow him to ever cause such devastation again. You are blessed in this age. The myths of ancient history would annhilate all mythic kind today, with just one of their own. Such wonders and terrors you could not comprehend. I saw them all, the true origins of all of your ancestors. ...My son was one of the greatest Myths to exist. I never had a child ever again... Kal'ull... my first born, tainted by the hatred of man... ...and I his father, had to pay for my people's mistakes. '' ''Akami only nods as she takes in his words. Vulkas stares at the tomb, and a faint green whisp appears at his side before he quickly waves it away. "But now our apparent blessed age is over." Yes, and no. An age shall end this day, but it shall not be yours. The final chapter, of my ancient history, shall be the one that ends. Vulkas keeps staring at the tomb. "Such horrible circumstances. So much has been lost already in mere moments." Suddenly the scene turns pure white, and Vulkas and the Ancient stand alone. I must tell you this, and you must keep these words for yourself. No matter how dire, how bleak, nor how insurmountable the odds, know that Fate itself, Destiny is watching over you all. Even at the final hour, know that the End will not come for you. For I am the End, of all and to be all. Even defeat is not a true end, for even in the darkest hour, a final light will rise and purge the darkness. Remember it well. "I have not lost all hope yet after years of torment, and I will not lose it now. I put my faith in you." Vulkas nods. Have faith in destiny, not I. I am fallible, yet destiny has never brought me astray. The scene returns to normal, and glowing stairs along the side of the prison begin to appear, all the way down to the entrance of the sphere. We have a long walk. Let us not waste time. Akami: Wait, we gonna go'' inside'' your son's tomb? Indeed. He is very much alive, and is partially responsible for tonight's grim events. Akami: Soooo what are we gonna do once we see him? The Ancient's voice comes out harsh and incredibly dark. Kill him. Akami: And how do we do that? Beat it to death? Holy item? Maybe a stuffed bunny? The Ancient doesn't answer, only continuing down the stairs. As they descend, Vulkas can start picking up on the immense spiritual energy contained within the sphere like tomb, the collective energy of all of Echo, he can feel its immense pressure even from above halfway to the structure, as well as the agony of the souls who are slowly losing their individuality. Akami: Sooooo...Mr. Jedi. What's your favorite color? Vulkas is distracted by the energy hes picking up, but understands that hes being talked to, not by what hes called by but by the direction of the voice. "I do not have a favorite. I do however prefer white and black to other colors." They descend farther and farther down, until at last they begin to arrive at the entrance. Prepare thy minds and bodies. This will be a trial like no other. Akami's mind begin to cringe. "We could barely handle that....Whatever that was back there. Now we're off to fight a seemingly stronger opponent. We had to switch to non-physical attacks to fight whatever disposed of Echo. How could we stop the Ancient's son? What could '''I' do? I can't do remotely anything remotely everyone else. Anything that's beyond physical. All I can do is punch, kick, hurl firecones, seal, hit an opponent one-hundred times in a second, and disintegrate a man's heart. But what good can that do to guys like this? It wouldn't matter because they have more to deal with than I do. Now I feel under prepared."'' Kanashimi looks over at Akami, as though sensing her mental worries. "Yo, relax. You're in the same boat as the rest of us." Akami: *sigh* Right. You're right. My apologies, I sort of got side-tracked in my mind. Vulkas breathes in, letting his breath out slowly. "I shall do all I can." Without a word, The Ancient leads them in, at first the light is blinding, but once they make their way inside, it opens up into a gargantuan central chamber with an equally gigantic coffin, upon which sits a young looking boy of African appearance, with feathers as part of headgear, and tribal tattoos and clothing. He possesses sharp light blue eyes, that pierce directly into them, even from this distance. He idly watches them enter, his posture relaxed, as if he knows they possess no threat to him. Above him is the massive mass of spiritual energy, impossibly big, shimmering with intense waves of light, periodically shrinking as more and more souls are stripped of their identity, merging with each other to form bigger and bigger proto-souls, some already contain the remnants of thousands of individuals. At the very center, a colossal developing soul slowly feeds on the biggest spiritual bodies, yet constantly compresses its contents as it slowly begins to form into an individual, the seams of the multiple souls that once made it up are quickly disappearing, all the individuals are now becoming a single being. The being finally looks at Vulkas. "I greet you all. Welcome to my former ''burial ground. Here, in the place I was laid to rest, we shall bare witness to new, pure life. I am Kal'ull, first of the Avatars, and to many of you Myths, your greatest forefather." Akami: Meeehh. I wouldn't say greateeeest. Vzark seems dumbstruck by Akami's reaction, but says nothing. Vulkas waves off a red colored whisp that quickly appears. "Forefather means nothing to us. You have lost the title of forefather by your own destruction of our kin." Kal'ull looks at him quietly. "You are less Myth and more a superior race of man. I can see that you possess Mythic blood, but a halfbreed is far from true kinship. That being said, no doubt Fate has already revealed themselves to you, so know that I am Fate's equal. I am Possibility, the Alpha. Nothing is beyond my reach. Nothing. So what if the life of a planet is expended to create the very means of creating their future paradise? Consequences have no meaning to either Fate or Possibility. We are limitless. If you take issue with us reaping the seed we sowed upon ancient days past, know that your souls of Echo are our bounty to reap, and that was merely but your purpose of life, to give yourselves to this infant above me." Akami: So cows then? That's what your saying we are? Vulkas scoffs. "Just because possibility exists does not mean it should be acted upon. While you represent what is possible, fate is destined. You will not, and cannot best us while fate is on our side." "I would disagree with that statement... balance is a funny force indeed. You will learn the painful truth in time. In fact, I will show you first hand that painful truth." He jumps, and slowly descends to the floor, landing soft as a feather. The Ancient steps forward silently in turn. Kal'ull stares at him for a time. "Long before man had settled all of the world, there was a garden. Selfish and foolish, the first humans broke the rules of their creator, and were punished to exile. Incapable of surviving without their creator, they wilted like the grass without rain. Then came the gift, the gift that gave rise to innovation, ideas, and thought. From that same gift, Myths were born, from those very same ideas. For a time, peace, but such as is with all worlds, impossible to maintain. No one source was the ultimate spark, but mine tale was but a reflection of what happened across the land: betrayal." Kal'ull's eyes narrow at the Ancient. "Here at last, eons later... ...justice... ...will be done." Father and Son, Honor and Blood Without warning, Kal'ull and The Ancient exchange blades, the Ancient with a broadsword, Kal'ull with a sickle, easily parrying the slower knight. The force of the blades meeting blows back the party with significant force. The two stare each other down while their blades are locked in conflict. "Everything I did, was in your benefit, my son." There is a strength to the old swordsman's voice that was absent before, a fire that had ignited. "You only stood to betray me and my kind. How many of our lives did you take, how many suffered by the blade of the 'hero' of humanity?" Kal'ull cooly replies. He hacks at his father's throat with a spare sickle, but The Ancient does not flinch. "Love turned to bloodshed is still bloodshed, my son. I taught you better." He slashes his son's hip, who simply leaps back, neither of them seem bothered by each other's wounds, in fact, both wounds close rapidly. They stand on guard, ready for each other's next attack. "Whatever you do, stand clear. Do not interfere." Vulkas clearly doesn't enjoy that command, but nods his head anyway. ''Akami feels neutral about hearing this. One part of her feels a bit relieved. The other part feels a bit upset. She simply takes a few paces back. The two rush each other again, the space they traverse ripples and tears apart, like the surface of a pond after a stone had been tossed through it. They clash and parry each other, but right from the beginning, they begin to slowly see something quite clearly: The Ancient is far too sluggish to keep up with the far faster Kal'ull, and the amount of damage he is taking in comparison to Kal'ull is undeniably far greater. Then Kal'ull lands a fiercesome blow to the Ancient's helm, and rips the whole left side off. To their surprise, nothing is inside the armor, except a cloud of dust, which begins to waft away due to the opening, and the rest of the helm appears to be degrading visibly now that the blow had been struck. The Ancient's movements become haphazard, but almost far more determined in their efforts, beginning to completely outmatch Kal'ull in raw power, forcing him back across the chamber with every parry, but it is nowhere near enough, and the battle between the two becomes grim. Yet the Ancient refuses to back down, until finally, Kal'ull rips open the chest armor, causing ash to billow out in massive clouds across the room, and every movement of the Ancient feels as though it is no longer natural movement, but rather vain efforts by a puppetmaster to keep moving the degrading doll. The badly damaged armor of the Ancient continues onward, and Kal'ull only flashes the armor a look of disgust and pity before tearing apart the two arms, and the Ancient's sword too turns to dust, the armor begins to fall lifelessly to the floor, amidst the huge pile of ash that is all that is left of the Ancient's form. Kal'ull takes a moment to gaze upon the sight before walking toward the group, twirling his sickles, his tattoos now glowing bands of energy, and his eyes glowing an ominous blue. "I'll end this pathetic farce now. Like I told you, this, is the painful truth. Possibility has surpassed Destiny." Suddenly, just behind Kal'ull, the ash has risen into a tall humanoid with the remnants of the armor formed into a sword, and without warning, cleaves Kal'ull in two, who howls and becomes a massive red mist filled with a storm of red static, and soars high into the air, before reforming into a tall white slender humanoid with two long curved horns and glowing dotted eyes, and six black and white angelic metal wings. It lets out a shriek of rage, before creating a massive scythe composed of the eight elements, and angrily tears into the ash figure with a mighty swing, letting out a roar of furious victory. The being then flies down toward the group, brandishing the scythe before hovering just above them. "I tire of this... ...I'll show you the strength of true justice..." To Surpass Legends Vulkas simply stares, showing no fear. "Your justice is weak. As is your possibility." Kanashimi looks surprised by the events that have unfolded, but quickly clenches her fists. Nezumi silently looks over at her, and it is then the two seem to notice each other. "Who the hell are you supposed to be- -no this isn't the time, got any fighting ability?" Kanashimi addresses Nezumi. "If scans are accurate, I am your clone, whom you may call Nezumi, and you would be Kanashimi. As I am based on you I-" "Ok ok that's all I needed to hear, can you do this?" Kanashimi ignites and turns into pure red flames, gaining a shield and blazing sword. Nezumi wordlessly activates her own divine instrument, and Kanashimi nods. "Not bad, you're a better clone than I thought." The two silently take up a vanguard position, both staring down the monstrous Kal'ull. Moegara smiles mischievously. "Oh how adorable~" She then hugs Abeni, who growls in disdain. "I'll be sure to back you up, my lady!" "Yes yes get off of me!" "Oh how cold!" Moegara draws her own weapons, standing loyally by Abeni, who glares at Kal'ull. "It's pieces of shit like you that remind me what I'm fighting for every day...!" Abeni growls. Azula's body ignites in azure flames, becoming pure energy while her black armor retains her form. "...This is for Kado." She rumbles with a primordial rage. Kal'ull seems unimpressed by the display. "You Chaos Engines are nothing but part of my creation, my master plan. Your very existence serves to only further my own ambitions." Abeni hurls a flaming axe, which Kal'ull lazily dodges. "I'll kill you, then no one will ever use us as tools again!" "...NAIVE." Kal'ull intones with force. Michiko draws her crystal sword, while Kiyona creates a spear of ice, neither of them possessing Slayers anymore. Though horribly disadvantaged, they seem determined to fight on. Zetsubo creates a longsword out of ice, while Kake cracks his knuckles. "No one torments my little moon lilly of a brother. Especially not old people like you." A dark aura surrounds him, despite the lack of Slayer. Vzark cant help but grow a smile on his face as he places his hand on the handle of Novas Wrath. "Your master plan should have accounted for all of us cutting you down then." The Twilight Siphon falls from Vulkas' sleeve, the chain dangling loudly. "Your fate has been decided." Kal'ull's body becomes pure crimson flames, his weapon changes to a spear. "Such arrogance," ''He calmly replies. Vulkas lets a smirk pass through. "What you see as arrogance, we see as trust and faith in one another. You stand alone now, and for the rest of eternity." Instead of replying, he stabs at them with the spear, Kanashimi and Nezumi manage to block it, but they are forced back heavily. ''Akami sprints towards Kal'ull, the jumps in his direction. She puts her lags together and points them straight out to the side. The strange attack is aiming towards Kal'ull's stomach area. Kal'ull takes advantage of Akami's attack and its lack of ability to evade an attack, and becomes icy and jagged, his spear is now a massive spiked ice club, which he uses to smash the defenseless half dragon into the wall, leaving her frozen in a huge spike of ice jutting out of the wall. Vulkas becomes surrounded in a red aura much like before, gaining red aura tail feathers and wings as his eyes turn red in response to Kal'ull's elemental form. He surrounds himself in astral energy as he sends out a scatter shot of astral bolts at Kal'ull. The astral bolts shatter on impact with his form, and he turns to his first non elemental form, and swings his scythe with a strange, wild white static. "Recommendation: Evade." Nezumi utters, before most of the group begins to scatter as the scythe bares down on them. Vzark quickly sprouts wings and flies out of the way. Vulkas has the shattered astral energy form together into an astral clone he switches place with, evading the scythe. Kal'ull seems to shrink down to Vulkas' size, before becoming blurry and static in appearance, circling him. Vulkas shifts places once more, continuing to evade Kal'ull. Without warning, Kal'ull warps and disappears, only to appear in a red energy form at the same space as Vulkas, and Vulkas takes massive damage as the red energy blasts him toward a wall, though Nezumi, always the punctual healer, grabs him and sets him down by a rock, and begins healing the damage. Meanwhilte, Kal'ull's body becomes pure flames, and his spear returns, along with his gigantic size. "I told you before, naive child." Kanashimi meanwhile unleashes a blizzard toward Kal'ull, which once it hits his flames, causes an odd white crackling energy to appear around him, and he jabs at Kanashimi, who is barely able to block with her shield. Vulkas just watches as hes healed. Tanoshimi eyes Kanashimi for a moment, before summoning what looks like both water and fire, and then hurling it at Kal'ull, who at first laughs, until abruptly his flaming form shatters and explodes into white sparks, reappearing as a red staticy twisted version of himself, roaring before reappearing, this time in a purely electrical form with a swarm of seven golden rings orbiting him. Vzark takes Tano's example and fires a torrent of water from his hands at Kal'ull. The water that approaches Kal'ull turns into lightning, is redirected through the golden rings, then each golden ring fires an empowered burst of lightning at him and the group as a whole. Kal'ull then becomes akin to a massive tornado. Vulkas quickly gets up and dissipates the redirected lightning. He then creates spike like rocks and sends them speeding into the tornado. When the rocks hit, Kal'ull's form explodes into static once more, this time though the red static form doesn't change, but lingers, and now a dark rumbling and growling can be heard from him, as the static flickers in brightness as though bolts of electricity were arcing about the form, and the form begins to divide into four cloaked figures with chains wrapping around them, which all begin to dive into the ground, leaving behind swirling red spots on the ground. Nezumi seems to be looking around. "Danger. Advise: Evade." Vzark stays on the alert, watcing the red spots. Vulkas creates various astral clones that randomly teleport around throughout the space. All along the walls, multiple small red lights glow ominously, particularly where the clones are. Vulkas gets rid of the clones. Four glowing red lights appear, one under Vzark, Nezumi, Kanashimi, and Vulkas, one underneath the former Slayers, who all dodge out of the way, one underneath the Lambda Generals, in response, Moegara merrily skips out of the way and Yasei sleepwalks out of the way, and finally one appears under Azula and Abeni, who leap out of the way. Ryoka walk over to the large ice spike that has encased Akami. She flicks the ice and it breaks into many tiny shards. Akami falls the the ground and shivers. Ryoka: Up now, fellow kin. We must not waste anymore time. Your life depends greatly on how you fight now. Akami: Yea yea, I know! Ryoka looks around for Kal'ull. Trying to hear the faintest sound from him. If he '''can' leave a sound.'' Vzark keeps moving. "This is getting really annoying!" Vulkas creates various sigils across the ground as he stays on the move. The four cloaked beings that had disappeared erupt from the spots with horrific screaming, followed by a flood of hooked chains that wildly slash at anyone too close to the spots, which then begin extending to attack at an even greater range, though Azula and Abeni destroy them before any serious injury occurs. Kal'ull then reforms, this time as his jagged icy form. However, he gives them little time for a breather, as he immediately goes to smash at them with his spiky ice club. One of the sigils lights up as an orange and red like color, and sudden unleashes a firestorm that engulfs Kal'ull. Ryoka holds her hand up ro her lip and curls her index in. Ryoka: Fa! The firestorm gets blow away away by the sudden force of the sound. A thing layer of ice cracks on the ice of Kalu'll's body. Ryoka curls in her middle finger Ryoka: So! Some ice soon breaks of of Kal'ull's body into small pieces. The ground behind Kalu'll blows apart too. Akami sprints towards Kal'ull and does a one handed cartwheel. She uses the momentum to push and slide herself across the ground. She crosses her arms as she aims for his legs. While the firestorm does heavy damage, it appears as though unlike the previous victories, a single strike is no longer sufficient, as the ice has only been partially damaged. The sound literally shatters on impact with Kal'ull, and then he begins a massive counterattack, summoning a huge hail of spiked ice hail that lands among the group at blinding speed, while most people evade, Vzark ends up being stabbed a few times, but is able to avoid critical damage, while Akami, Ryoka, and Sylles are pierced in several organs repeatedly, and are forced to retreat behind Kanashimi's shield, which prevents any further life threatening injuries, and she begins healing them. A red barrier flickers over Kal'ull, and he fades into the red static form, seemingly recharging. Vzark curses under his breath as Vulkas activates a sigil, starting to passively heal the people who were damaged. Another activates and the party gains a red sigil on their back, and most can feel an increase in their power. Akami: Stupid! Ass! Plan! Ryoka: There was no plan. Akami: Well no wonder we almost fucking died! Ryoka: You ''almost died. Akami: Well thank you for reminding my of my mortality! *she gets up on her feet* Kal'ull turns into a blinding white light, six spears on each side of him appears. Meanwhile, above them, the large soul-mass begins to throb akin to a heart, much of the spiritual energy is condensed into a thin cloud of energy around the central spirit mass, the final stage of condensation is beginning. "''Soon, and then all of your efforts will have been wasted." ''The spears begin to rain down upon them. Abeni and Azula take action, firing large bursts of shadow at Kal'ull, Kanashimi and Nezumi redouble their healing and shielding efforts, Moegara lobs large spheres of darkness which explode like bombs upon impact, Lyre flickers and becomes distorted, while Tanoshimi hurls shadow bolts at Kal'ull. Yasei becomes gray and begins slashing the spears near her away, while Kanda defends with a barrier of light. "Stay focused!" She yells. Michiko begins to intone various magics, while Kiyona and Zetsubo lend aid to Kanashimi and Nezumi to reduce their workload. Kake meanwhile lets off a massive black hole which surges toward Kal'ull. Vzark cracks his neck and releases a torrent of shadow like energy from his mouth, spewing it at Kal'ull. Vulkas focuses on offense as he creates skulls made of darkness that shatter and explode into mists of darkness as they crash into Kal'ull. ''Ryoka manifests six enormous curved kunai from her back and the close-in in front of her and point outward. Ryoka: Push. Akami: Wh-Sure. Akami puts her fists up against Ryoka's back. Her gauntlets burst into flames and launches the both of them towards Kal'ull. Ryoka: Now spin. Akami: Like how? Ryoka: Jumping through a flaming hoop Akami: Okay. Akami launches her feet of the ground and straightens her body. She sends herself and Ryoka into do a spiral roll as they close in Kal'ull. Suddenly Ryoka turns into ash and disappears with only Akami still heading his way. Kal'ull suffers massive damage and disappears, emerging as his red shadowy form, unfortunately Ryoka and Akami aren't able to stop, and Ryoka is blasted by incredibly caustic energy which leaves her severely damaged and flung across the room, saved from hitting the ground by Moegara, who pats her head. "No worries, I'll get you taken care of~" She rushes Ryoka to Nezumi and the others who are healing, and they begin to treat Ryoka's serious injuries. As for Akami, when she hits the energy of Kal'ull, she is suspended in it and a horrible oozing feeling begins to seep into her body, as though his essence was oozing right into her mind, body, and soul. Kal'ull's hand grasps her, leaving only her head uncovered, and he raises her up to his eyes, which glow ominously, yet deeply alluring, ancient power courses through them, imparting his will into her mind. Awaken your true self, your true blood. Answer the call of the lord of mythic kind. Return to your origin, and embrace your destiny. Escape your shackles and submit to your blood. His words and the ancient power of his essence, the corruption seeping into her being, calls to her slumbering blood and riles it from slumber, eager to serve its ancient master. Akami begins to feel the itch of scales growing out of her skin, the exhilaration of her inner nature, her dragon blood beating through her heart and making her heart beat stronger, faster, deeper, her eyes glow with power from within, the beginnings of the loss of control now haunt her mind. Akami: No..Noo.No! I can't...! I don't...I don't wanna...! But...It feels so...Empowering... C''ome on, Akami! You can't risk your freedom over this power! I'm as straong as I need to be! '' No! No I'm not! I haven't been able to match anyone here! I'm liability amongst the overcapable. But what good are you if incapacitate yourself? I want the power too, but not like this! And I'm content with what I have! Then you don't know what you want! Do not fear... this is your own power... spread your wings, be free from the shackles of the earth! Soar like all of your ancestors have before you, embrace your gift, the gift only you as a dragon may possess! They need you, they want you... without you, the real you, you'll be too weak to save them. Too weak to protect your family. Too weak to save the world of your dreams. You'll fail them. You'll fail them all... Akami: .....They could be lies. Or just an excuse for me to submit. '''He's right. Without the full extent of our power, what good are we? To our cause? '''I don't want mankind to fear us! Our power is what makes them afraid! They would hand over their freedom willingly instead of seeing us in a different light! '''Then maybe it's time for another approach. 'Besides, don't you want to save our family? '''They're not in danger! '''Well how long is it before they are?'' Akami's chest begins to crack from red light as the corruption progresses, the scales grow more fiercely, her body undergoes growth as she begins to get bigger, more muscular, and the beginnings of a tail sprout, the stubs of horns grow on her forehead. They already fear you... you have already lost one... how many more will you sacrifice for the sake of your own pride, your arrogance? Alone you are weak, make yourself humble and accept who you truly are... She now sees an image of herself as a beautiful, glorious dragon, unbound, free, her family and friends safe behind the might of her fangs. Akami stares at herself for a moment and raises her hand to touche her face but retracts. She doesn't know what to think. The powers is immense, more than she has ever felt. She almost feels unstoppable, but she knows that's still very far from the case. It feels like she could push ten mountains. She feels like she could go from The Slums to the border of Canada in one jump. She feels like she could reduce a 300 story building with just the flick of her finger. All this, yet, her mind slowly aches. Almost like shame. Akami begins to flicker in and out of awareness, as the cracks creep up and down her body, oozing with corrupt power. The corruption has infiltrated her mind, altering her subconscious and restructuring her mind from the framework and working toward grasping her consciousness. The effort to fight back begins to falter as her tail grows visible at the bottom of his fist, her morality is being silenced and replaced with a cacophony of whispers enticing and enshrining her, beckoning her to embrace her new self, her gift, her destiny. Her body soon loses all of its skin, replaced by fine scales, her hair becoming vibrant shades of red, almost flamelike, her scales are like jeweled rubies. An aura of power flows around her body, the power within her now beginning to swirl like a mighty hurricane. Akami can't think. Her hidden primal instict speaking to her. She never knew she had this unknown want to fufill her the destiny that was laid before her through her dragonic heritage. Soon her many years of life begin to slip away from her, like she's throwing away the garabage. She she could not think. She could only act out of her instict. Kal'ull releases her as she fully sucumbs to his control, now a fully formed Tianlong dragon, driven by Kal'ull's command to attack her allies without quarter. The group hears an ominous laugh as Kal'ull watches from the shadows. Vzark scratches his neck. "So um....how exactly bad is this?" Vulkas surrounds his hands in draconic energy, which take the form of chains. The corrupted Akami roars, spitting bursts of plasma at the entire group. Vulkas dodges the plasma and the chains spring out from his hand, attempting to wrap around Akami. Vzark counters the plasma by blasting them with maser bolts. Akami charges at the group, only to sweep to the side, causing her tail to slam into them, a blazing aura around her. The chains curl back and catch the tail, holding it in place before the group can get hit. Vukas starts creating more chains. "Akami! Listen! You must stop this!" She sparks with red energy like Kal'ull's, and a greek 'Alpha' symbol appears atop her head as she charges some kind of red energy ball in her mouth, and he can feel a massive negative energy spike as a result. Vulkas grimaces. "Stay on the evasive!" He begins to channel positive energy into the chains to try to counter act the negative energy corrupting her as he starts moving. "Oh boy." Vzark sprouts wings and hovers up to gain more mobility. The red energy becomes almost breserk and begins to travel down the chains, eating at them like acid. She rears her head and fires a constant beam of negative energy at them, Nezumi and Kanashimi attempting to soften the impact with their shields, but are having difficulty due to healing the injured. Vulkas attempts to assist them by creating sigils on their shields to increase their defensive power. "Do not get hit by the negative force!" Kal'ull faintly reappears. "How precious. She bemoaned her weakness when in truth the only thing weak about her was her mind... I so enjoyed breaking that pathetic bravado of hers... come here my pet." She ceases her attack and begins passively circling Kal'ull's shadow, while his shadowy hand strokes her head, as if she were a dog. Vzark cringes. "Thats just...something about that is just gross." Vulkas is disgusted. "Even in that form her mind and soul is stronger than yours." "You make your words only to please yourself, not to adhere to the unalterable truth." Without warning, he strikes the dragonic head of Akami with a storm of red sparks flying from her, as she lets out a pitiable howl of pain, crashing nearby the group, unconcious. However, in her mind, which had become cleared and emerged intact from the takeover of her will, a message to her from Kal'ull is stored, for her to recieve upon coming to: You were indeed weak, not even a match for anyone. Indeed, you were a liability. But it wasn't the strength or what magic you could wield or not wield... no, it was your weak mind, your weak will. Your inability to accept your limitations as is proves the extent of which you have yet to grow. Consider this a lesson for you, Child of Two Worlds. There is no one, nothing that cannot be corrupted by power and personal greed. Now you have felt the bite and the sting that comes with power, remember it. If you will not embrace yourself, all of yourself, even your darkness, humanity will never accept you, not even if every bone in your body is broken. You do not know sacrifice until you have given something of value. Bleating like a helpless lamb only undermines your cause. You are weak, but only because you chose to hide like a coward from what you really are. You are something that was taboo in my age, something disgusting, foul, hideous. A link between the worlds, proof that coexistence isn't an idle dream. You are a symbol. You possess a strength no other does. Remember this lesson well, for we are watching you always. And you will be judged... Above Kal'ull, the spirit mass fully condenses into one solid sphere, and turns dark. However, at the center, a faint gleam of light burns, the start of a soul's nucleus, the very cornerstone of a brand new life in this world. It pulsates faintly, throbbing weakly like a newborn heart. "Ah, and thus concludes the time I have been alotted. We shall watch you from afar..." Their vision blurs and becomes staticy, eventually clearing up, though they are in deep space, facing a massive vortex of sorts, a dying storm of matter and energy, meek fragments of rocks and land and occasional pieces of mountains float about. At the center of this storm is the infant soul, still incredibly vast. Akami's body begins to shrink, to the point she regains a humanoid form, though traits of her dragonic self remain, such as the altered quality of her hair and scales serving as armor to her weakened body. She maintains a tail, but her dragonic side has been put back into check, though the storm that had been born had only been temporarily caged. Her hands and feet are graced with beautiful but deadly claws. She appears unconcious, but stable, though the Alpha mark on her forehead is still evident, though losing intensity. As the group recomposes themselves, it seems as though the soul lies unguarded... Vulkas seems somewhat confused, rushing over to Akami, infusing positive energy into her to try to help her condition. Vzark eyes the soul, tempted to approach it.